eated her upon a little crock at my left hand. "My
pretty maid," said I, "do you own yourself to have been the inhabitant
of the garment before us?" The girl, I found, had good sense, and told
me with a smile, that, "notwithstanding it was her own petticoat, she
should be very glad to see an example made of it; and that she wore it
for no other reason, but that she had a mind to look as big and burly as
other persons of her quality; that she had kept out of it as long as
she could, and till she began to appear little in the eyes of her
acquaintance; that, if she laid it aside, people would think she was not
made like other women." I always give great allowances to the fair sex
upon account of the fashion, and, therefore, was not displeased with
the defence of the pretty criminal. I then ordered the vest which stood
before us to be drawn up by a pulley to the top of my great hall, and
afterwards to be spread open by the engine it was placed upon, in such a
manner, that it formed a very splendid and ample canopy over our heads,
and covered the whole court of judicature with a kind of silken rotunda,
in its form not unlike the cupola of St. Paul's. I entered upon the
whole cause with great satisfaction as I sat under the shadow of it.

The counsel for the petticoat were now called in, and ordered to produce
what they had to say against the popular cry which was raised against
it. They answered the objections with great strength and solidity of
argument, and expatiated in very florid harangues, which they did not
fail to set off and furbelow, if I may be allowed the metaphor, with
many periodical sentences and turns of oratory. The chief arguments for
their client were taken, first, from the great benefit that might arise
to our woollen manufactory from this invention, which was calculated
as follows. The common petticoat has not above four yards in
the circumference; whereas this over our heads had more in the
semi-diameter; so that, by allowing it twenty-four yards in the
circumference, the five millions of woollen petticoats, which,
according to Sir William Petty, supposing what ought to be supposed in
a well-governed state, that all petticoats are made of that stuff, would
amount to thirty millions of those of the ancient mode: a prodigious
improvement of the woollen trade! and what could not fail to sink the
power of France in a few years.

To introduce the second argument, they begged leave to read a petition
of the